I spun around to take in the space and saw another tapestry hanging on the rear wall, much like the one in the infirmary, except this one was for the Darrah line, but it cut off abruptly the closer it went toward the top.
Hoping I’d find something useful, I started to my right with the first stack of scrolls I found, sat down on the floor, and started reading.
6
Forrest
I rubbed my tired eyes and frowned when the flame from my lantern started to flicker, threatening to go out on me. I’d been up all night, tucked away in this hidden room in the library. The more I read, the more my connection to Malcolm seemed to grow, though I found nothing on him, Broden, or Celandine. No mention of a Vindicar at all.
Everything in my readings spoke of a time after the realms had already been split apart. There were records of trade agreements, and several feuds between the Darrah and other dragon clans, but nothing that dated back any further.
The sun would be rising soon, and Magnus would be at the infirmary to check on me. My only chance to get close to our things was to act as if I was back to my old self. Hating that I found nothing, I glared around the room one final time when I spied a small wooden chest beneath a stack of loose pages I’d tossed over it hours ago.
“What are you?” I whispered, dragging it over to my spot on the floor. I brushed the dust and dirt from it and lifted the lid, or tried to. “Locked. Seriously?”
I pried at it with my fingernails, but it was stuck fast. My lantern nearly burned out, I frantically looked around for anything to help me pry it open and saw a few broken pieces of an old dagger lying around.
I snatched one up and attacked the lock. When it finally came free with a harsh crack, breaking the box completely, I flung back the lid and reached inside to pull out the single rolled up parchment inside. There was a wax seal still in perfect condition on it, bearing the sigil of the Darrah line.
Heart pounding, I debated on getting it to Kate first and letting her open it, but there was no time. Praying she’d forgive me, I broke the seal and unrolled a letter that no one had read since the day it was written.
And as my eyes devoured the words on the page, my mind raced with what had to be done.
7
Kate
I heard the cell door open, and two guards walked in, one aiming his spear at Craig to keep him back as another brought in a jug of water and a tray of what I guessed was supposed to be food. It looked like bread of some kind, but my stomach revolted at trying to eat anything.
The past few days had been the same routine. Water once a day, with a sad excuse of something to eat. Peeing in a bucket was turning into an exciting adventure, but Craig was extremely polite about the entire ordeal, ensuring I was blocked from view of the guards, and not smirking as I relieved myself as I knew he wanted to do.
In any normal situation, I would’ve been laughing right along with him, but I was too weak, too exhausted, and too pissed to find anything about this amusing.
After the guards left, Craig brought over the jug of water.
I cringed, but he refused to back down.
“You have to drink something at least,” he insisted. “You haven’t eaten in two days. Staying hydrated is better than nothing.”
I pursed my lips at him, but he was right. I took the jug and sipped it, barely swallowed before I felt like it was going to come rushing back up. “Nope, not happening.” I shoved the jug back at him and covered my mouth with my hand, taking deep breaths until my stomach calmed down.
“We have to get that damned healer back down here,” he growled and banged his fist on the bars. “Did you hear me? He messed her up! He’s hurting her! Get him down here!”
The guards ignored his yelling as they had every other time he did so. We’d been down here at least four days, longer probably, but no one told us how much time passed.
Craig murmured something about it being a whole week, and I cringed to think how much longer it could be before we saw sunlight again. And we hadn’t seen Forrest again.
Both of us were on edge, but it wasn’t the fear of what was going to happen that got to me. It was the fear of seeing another horrible vision of the past. They were relentless, and each time, I didn’t have to ask Craig to know they were growing worse. My shirt was covered in dried blood from having it drip down my face each time, and my entire body was sore from the violent thrashing that seemed to happen every time.
“I’m going to get us out of here,” Craig whispered in my ear as he joined me on the cot.
“How? There are at least four guards just outside the cell and probably more at the entrance to the dungeon,” I replied weakly. “And I can barely stand long enough to follow you out.”
“I’ll carry you.”
“And fight them all off at the same time? Damn, you are good.”
I smiled, but he wasn’t buying it, and his eyes darkened with concern.
“Craig, I’m going to be fine. Stop looking at me like I’m about to die.”
He scowled at my words and drank the water, probably wishing it was demon grog.
“Forrest said he’d come back for us.”
“And you believe him?” he growled. “That was days ago. For all we know, he’s being locked up in his room somewhere, and is as much a prisoner as we are.”
“I’m trying to have a little faith like Mama Lucy always taught me.” I hugged my knees to my chest, feeling like shit. Curling up in a tiny ball and pretending the world didn’t exist sounded like a great idea, but I was the Vindicar.
For the first time since starting this crappy adventure, I longed to be back at Mama Lucy’s house, in the garden digging away at weeds. Back to my normal, boring life where the fate of the entire world and all its realms didn’t rely on my finding some damned shield and putting it back together to fight against some plague trying to swallow the world whole. I didn’t even know who was behind it all in the first place! I was no closer to having answers than when we arrived at the ruins and learned who we really were.
“Kate?”
“What?” I grumbled, not bothering to lift my head.
“Your arms are glowing.”
I frowned, not sensing another throwback to the past, and glanced at my arms. “Huh, that’s neat.”
“Neat? That’s what you’re going to say? The power that’s probably going to kill you is neat?”
“What else do you want me to say?” I held my arms out before me, and heard the guards whispering worriedly outside the cell.
“Stop whatever you’re doing,” one of them warned.
“I’m not doing anything.” The glowing began to pulse with each pounding beat of my heart, and I hurried off the cot and away from Craig.
“What are you doing?” he asked, reaching for me, but I shook my head, and he paused.
“No, just stay away, alright? I have no idea what’s going on anymore, and I’m not about to hurt you.”
“You won’t—”
“Just stay there.” The pulse increased again, and I sensed a warmth move through me.
My dragon reared her head, but she was still heavily bound in chains inside my mind. I wanted more than anything to let her out, but all I could do was feel her shift angrily within me, bashing her body around and sending me to my knees.
“Kate! Damn it, get your bloody healer down here, now!”
I pressed my hands to my temples, grinding my teeth as my mind was yanked away from the present again and thrown back to the past…
I waited for the grisly scene to appear before my eyes, but when I landed in Celandine’s body once again, there was no battle raging around me. No bloodshed.
She stood in a room lit by torches, by a table surrounded by more Darrahs, including Malcolm. She didn’t turn, but I sensed Broden standing protectively behind her. She felt younger and didn’t seem to carry as much weariness as she had before. When she met eyes with Malcolm, I realized he was younger, too.
This was as far back as
I’d been thrown so far, and though I wanted to be back in the cell with Craig, not writhing in pain, a voice inside me said this was what I was meant to see, what she’d been trying to show me all along.
“We are here for one reason and one reason only,” Celandine said firmly. “Our King has changed, and I believe we all know why.”
“It cannot be as you say,” a dragon spoke up across the table.
“It is,” Malcolm agreed with Celandine. “He has put our kin at risk, and we cannot stand by while he tears our world apart for his greed.”
“His greed? You cannot be serious, either of you.”
“Three of us actually,” Broden replied from behind Celandine.
The dragon who spoke stepped closer to the table and his face contorted with his emotions, bared his teeth. “Our King is not yours. Why are you here?”
“You know why,” Celandine replied tiredly. “And he will remain here as my personal guard, as he has and always will be. We do not need to have this discussion every time we meet. It grows tiresome, especially when there are more important matters to tend to.”
Broden growled, and the dragon’s gaze flicked behind me, then back to Celandine.
“I do not understand what you believe is happening. Our King merely seeks to expand our borders. There is nothing wrong with such ambitions.”
“There is when he is killing his own kin!” Malcolm slammed his palms on the table. “Two villages now we have found, all of the villagers gone, not a trace of them left.”
“They moved on, it happens,” the dragon tried to argue.
“No, he killed them, dragged them off to use.”
“In these dark rituals you speak of? Celandine, I beg of you,” the dragon pleaded, “you cannot think he is capable of such horrid acts as murder!”
“Slaughter,” she corrected, and I sensed her dragon shifting inside her. “Not murder.”
The dragon hung his head, looking around the room for anyone to agree with him, but clearly, no one was on his side. Their faces were set in hard lines. Whatever was going on, I felt this was the beginning of the plague.
“Long ago, the words were written that a great darkness would rise,” Celandine said quietly. “And in that time, a hero would be chosen to fight against it.”
“It does not specify it as being one of us!”
“You really think I want it to be him?” Celandine snarled fiercely. “Do you?”
The dragon and several others in the room stared wide-eyed at Celandine, and I worked at reading her mind to understand their reaction, but her mind was a blur of raw emotion.
“He is my father. No daughter should have to plan the assassination of their parent.”
If I could’ve gasped out loud, I would’ve, but stuck inside her head all I could do was stare out through her eyes at this new information.
“Whoever this hero is, we must find him, or her, and we must do it soon.”
Find them? I wanted to ask about a hundred questions as to what was going on, but suddenly I was yanked out of Celandine’s body and landed hard back into my own.
Craig was yelling furiously, banging on the bars.
“Let her go! Kate!”
Confusion clouded my mind. “Craig?”
Two hands held my upper arms, and I was being dragged down the corridor.
I shook my head. “Where are you taking me? Get off! Craig!”
“Kadin will see you now,” one of the guards answered.
“What for?” I yanked harder against their grip, but they were like iron.
“To judge you for your crimes.”
“Crimes of what? Being born a damned Darrah?” I swallowed down my fear as my dragon lifted her head, snarling at the notion of another judging us.
I had to tell Craig what I just learned! I had to get away from them! The runes on my arms glowed brightly as I was tugged up a set of stone stairs, through the palace, and finally back into another hall I’d woken up to, chained to the floor.
“Let me go, you bastards!”
They ignored my rantings, and my hands were forced together so they could be chained. Again.
I snarled at them, snapping my jaws, but each time my dragon tried to attack, the chains that bound her in my mind tightened, and we both writhed in pain.
“You might as well settle down,” a male voice announced across the room. “You are not escaping.”
I spied the man who looked like an older version of Forrest, his skin a shade darker and his eyes cold. There was no warmth in this dragon, and without thinking, I spat at his feet, smirking when his lip twitched in disgust.
“And this is what the Darrah line has come to?” He sighed and stepped down from his dais.
Another door opened, and I jerked around to see Raghnall joining us, as well as Reginald and several other demons.
Why were they here?
I frowned, watching him closely as I worked my hands at the manacles. I wasn’t about to stand here and let them judge me for anything.
“Katherine Darrah,” Kadin stated loudly, “you are hereby charged with crimes against the dragon clan Chimalus. You are accused of kidnapping the prince, as well as attacking several dragon soldiers, and stepping into the Darrah lands, and action that is against the law of this land.”
“The lands of my family,” I reminded him sharply. “I think I’m allowed, of all people, to be there.”
He’s a traitor…
I tilted my head, shutting my eyes tightly at the voice whispering in my ear.
“Your family has been banished from these lands.”
“By you because you thought they were murderers.”
His face darkened, and he growled as he said, “They are murderers. They killed my family and many others in their maddened state. Ranting and raving about a plague coming for us all.” His hand closed over the hilt at his hip. “I wiped out those involved, and the others were meant to flee, never to return.”
“Then why did you invite my dad to come here again?” I shot back.
He will never understand… will never accept the truth… he must die…
I rolled my shoulders as the runes on my arms began to glow. This wasn’t the time I wanted to fall back into the past, but all I could hear now was a rushing in my ears.
Kadin’s lips moved, but whatever he said was lost on me. I didn’t care anymore for what he had to say, and neither did my dragon.
“Murderer,” I whispered harshly, and the room fell deathly silent.
“What did you say?” Kadin replied. “Speak, Darrah!”
“I am not just a Darrah,” I warned, glaring at him as my lips curled into a grin that wasn’t my own. “I am the Vindicar and you, you let the darkness spread. You are the reason the world will plunge into darkness once more!”
“It was never in darkness in the first place.” He drew a few inches of his blade.
The power I felt when I created the shield of protection back at the ruins ratcheted up a few notches.
“There was, and there will be again if you do not let me go.”
Kadin glanced at Raghnall, who only glared at me fiercely. “You speak nonsense, all of you do! There is no darkness, there is no plague, and there are no past lives! You took my son, and you bewitched him! Now, you will pay for that crime!”
He unsheathed his sword and stalked toward me. Really? He was going to attack me while I was chained? Where was the challenge in that?
There was a time I told myself I was a kind, gentle person. I enjoyed helping others and was nice. Would never raise a finger to hurt anyone or anything.
But now, I saw that was all a lie. One horrible lie.
I was a Darrah, the Vindicar, and I would not back down from a fight. If Kadin wanted to carry out judgment for what he saw as my crime, I would not make it easy for him. Bracing for the pain that was bound to come, I focused all my power on breaking the chains holding my dragon within my mind.
Time slowed around me.
Each ste
p Kadin took thundered in my ears.
I closed my eyes, tilted my head back, and let the power flow. Warmth flooded me, and my dragon strained against the chains. Any second now that blade would be swinging for me.
Blood trickled down my nose, and I felt it in my ears too, as I forced everything I had into breaking those chains, but it wasn’t enough.
Use them… use their strength…
Instantly, my thoughts turned to Craig and Forrest.
They might not be standing beside me, but they were here, and if I reached out far enough, I could feel them as if they stood right behind me.
I used our connection, and my eyes shot wide open as the runes on my body glowed so brightly they blinded everyone in the room.
With a roar of triumph, I felt the chains holding my dragon captive break free and shatter, letting her rise up.
Kadin took a panicked step back as I snarled.
With one hard tug, I broke through the manacles.
I barely had a second to understand all the fury and need for blood roiling through me before my dragon burst through the surface and I was ready to kill them all.
8
Forrest
I had just grabbed the knapsack as well as the dagger from my father’s chambers when I gasped for air, my knees going weak and I fell into the nearest wall trying to catch my breath.
Panic filled me. I had no idea what was happening when I suddenly felt a hand cupping my cheek though there was no one before me. But that touch, I would know it anywhere.
“Kate,” I breathed and a second later, a roar I was coming to know well sounded in the palace.
It was now or never, and I had to move quickly. I couldn’t find the Executioner blade, but it would have to wait. If Kate had shifted, she was out of the dungeon, and Craig was alone. And if she was causing this much of a disturbance, she’d pull all the guards to the main hall, leaving the dungeon unguarded.
I slung the knapsack on my back, dressed back in my clothes I came here with, and took off at a dead sprint through the palace.
Legends Page 4
